Bus & coach at the heart of Spanish sustainable & affordable mobility

The Spanish trade organisations Asintra and Fenebús have jointly published a book showing added value of buses and coaches in Spain, where long-distance public passenger transport by road is the key mode of transport to guarantee sustainable mobility of all population groups throughout the country. Public service contracts are managed through concessions regulating the bus and coach transport system, which allows to offer a widely-reaching transport system at comparatively lower prices than in its neighbouring countries.

Green

The book proves that coaches are the greenest mode of transport: coaches in Spain produce the lowest negative externalities, generating an estimated saving of EUR 1.9 million lower external costs, reducing emissions by 6.9 million tons of CO2, and saving 1.330 million litres of fuel – 28% of the overall target of the Energy Saving and Efficiency Strategy (EAEE) Action Plan 2005-2007 and 64% of the objective set for the transport sector.

Affordable

Coach services are used by more than four million Spanish households that do not have private vehicles and households with lower incomes as travelling by coach costs a third of travelling by car, and half of those of high speed train (AVE).

Safe

The long-distance coach provides quality and safe services. According to data from Spain’s State Office for Traffic, a coach is 21 times safer than a car, considering the number of injured persons: 7.3 injured persons for every billion passenger kilometres, compared to 157.4 in cars and 24 times safer considering the number of fatalities 0.2 fatalities for every billion passenger kilometres, compared with 4.9 in cars.

User-friendly

As far as quality is concerned, the users of regular services on a nationwide scale give the service an overall 7.08 out of 10, with particular appreciation of the safety during the journey, the punctuality of the departure, the courtesy and good manners of the staff, the cleanliness of the coach and the quality and comfort of the vehicles.

Efficient

In addition to the contribution to economic efficiency, the sector is a major source of economic activity and quality employment. It is made up of around 4,000 companies, which generates 76,000 jobs with a turnover of EUR 3.8 billion per year, and contributes (directly and indirectly) EUR 3.2 billion to the country’s GDP.